As Economy Sours, China Frets over Jobless Graduates

As unemployment rises in China, competition for jobs is so severe that a Guangzhou Daily newspaper story early this month said that thousands of seniors in southern China had sought jobs as nannies and domestic helpers in the homes of the rich.

Such reports are unsettling not only for college students and parents but also for China’s leaders. Communist Party chiefs are well aware that college graduates led the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square until tanks rolled through the capital, and they don’t want educated – and now highly networked – young people growing disgruntled.

Premier Wen Jiabao recently discussed the issue with the State Council, China’s Cabinet, and the body issued a statement afterward calling university graduates a valuable human resource and vowing that the government “gives top priority to their employment.”